Retaliatory US strikes on Iran-linked groups kill 19

The death toll from retaliatory US strikes on Iran-linked groups in Syria after a drone attack rose to at least 19, a war monitor said.

Rocket attacks by Iran-backed militias took place late last Friday, prompting strikes by coalition warplanes, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Washington carried out the initial strikes after the Pentagon said a US contractor was killed by a drone “of Iranian origin” that struck a US-led coalition base near Hasakeh in north-eastern Syria.

The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said, at President Biden’s direction, he had ordered the “precision air strikes … in eastern Syria against facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps”.